Johnson Matthey Plc
Third Quarter Interim Management Statement
Johnson Matthey today provides its third quarter Interim Management Statement covering the period from 1st October 2011 to 31st January 2012. Unless otherwise stated, figures quoted in this statement are for the quarter ended 31st December 2011.
Current Trading
The group continued to make further good progress in the third quarter. Compared with the same period last year, sales excluding precious metals (sales) were up 22% at £649 million and underlying profit before tax increased by 34% to £104.3 million.
The group's balance sheet remains strong and at 31st December 2011 net debt was £442 million, approximately £175 million lower than at 30th September 2011. This reduction was due to a significant decrease in working capital in response to lower platinum group metal prices and a large inflow of customer funded metal deposited with us at the end of the period.
